The Stand Up Paddleboard Workout

Stand Up Paddleboarding (or SUP) seems to be everywhere these days.

Visit a beach, a lake or a river, and you will usually see many people SUP’ing. Maybe it’s because the learning curve is so shallow that almost anyone can be up and enjoying themselves on an SUP in just a matter of minutes. Or maybe its just because it’s just plain fun. You are on the water enjoying nature, all while getting a great workout for your body. Whatever the reason, it is much more fun to paddle when your body is conditioned properly.

Some serious movement conditioning will come in to great play if you plan on spending long periods of time out on the water paddling. If you are serious about SUP, this is a great workout routine that will help you not only stay out longer on the water, but do it stronger and more efficiently while reducing the risk of future injury.

In order to understand the exercises, let’s first look at SUP from the bodys point of view

Balance, agility, mobility, coordination, strength, physical conditioning and power all come in to play at once when one is paddling. Depending on a variety of different factors (weather, water type, board type, etc) some more than others. In order to get the most out of your SUP sessions, one must train each of these different abilities both individually and in unison. The most focus will be put on the core muscles. This means we have to stabilize as well as build the strength and endurance enough to handle any corrections the body may need to make in order to stay on our feet while paddling. Instead of doing single movement exercises(such as curls, presses and squats), the workout is a nice mix of warm up, core and multiplanar/compound movements that will test you both physically and mentally.

The Workout Routine

Frequency=2 to 3 days a week

Sets-=1 to 2 for beginners, 2-3 MAX for everyone else

Reps=12-15 per exercise

Weighted Exercises= Use a weight that you can easily move in correct form for reps shown above

Timed Exercises= 20-45 second holds to start, working your way up to 60 seconds.

Rest 20 seconds between sets before moving to next. Once you have performed all exercises , rest 1 minute and repeat.

Active Warm Up

Perform 2 sets of 8-10 reps for each warm up exercise before moving on to the next. Pace should be slow and steady to wake the muscles up gently. We aren’t exercising yet.

The Compound Body Movements

*Workout Tips*

Always use perfect posture/kinetic chain allignment and keep shoulder blades tight. Be creative. Try and make your movements under resistance replicate those you plan on enjoying this summer. Attention to all the small details are where your progress will be made. Don’t cheat just to do a rep. If you can’t perform exercises on 1 leg, try on both until your body adapts. Don’t just concentrate on the contraction(the squeeze). Take your time letting the weight go down(eccentric phase) will also help the endurance of the muscles. Make sure to follow up every exercise session by stretching the muscle groups that your worked out. Remember to add 20-30 minutes of cardio to your routine 2-3x/ week.

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